One of the main accusations against Brandy Melville is their lack of body representation, as well as their promotion of unrealistic beauty standards and “thinner is better” ideology. If you visit Brandy Melville’s official website, you’ll find that almost all of the models shown in their advertisements look nearly identical: white, thin women.
Obviously, these are very specific characteristics that aren’t representative of the entirety of Brandy Melville’s target demographic: teenage girls.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with the body type that Brandy Melville advertises. The problem isn’t what Brandy Melville is showing its customers, the problem is what’s not being shown.
There is a very noticeable lack of diversity in Brandy Melville’s models. Hardly any people of color and no variation in body type whatsoever. Not even by a few inches. Not even by a few pounds.
Only promoting models with a very specific body shape creates the narrative that this is what Brandy’s buyers (predominantly teenage girls) should look like. The fact that Brandy Melville mostly models its clothes on thin, white women only enforces more insecurities onto their buyers.
Similar to the lack of diversity in its models, Brandy Melville lacks diversity in its clothing. Only one size of clothing is sold at Brandy Melville, and let’s just say… it’s not a one size fits all. Brandy Melville’s default size translates to somewhere between a small and an extra-small in standard clothing sizing.
Even if the clothes do fit you, very few people will look exactly like those models, models who were handpicked out of a plethora of girls, posed perfectly in perfect lighting in clothes perfectly tailored to their bodies. This only leaves young girls in dressing rooms wondering why the top fits them but doesn’t really fit them. Not like the girls on the website.
Studies report that 40-60% of elementary school girls are worried about gaining weight. Elementary school. Meaning as young as six years old. Shouldn’t six year olds be playing in the sand box, coloring with chalk, making believe with their friends? Not worrying about the size of their body?
The numbers only grow as the girls age. 53% of girls are unhappy with their bodies at the early age of thirteen. By the time they’re seventeen, the percentage increases to 78%. 45% of teenage girls admit that they’ve considered getting cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.
46% of nine-to-eleven-year-old girls are “sometimes” or “often” on diets for the sole purpose of losing weight. 82% of their family members are also on diets. 1 in 100 girls ages 12-18 have Anorexia Nervosa. For reference, the population of Niles North is about 2,000. Evanston Township High School has a population of 3,700. Niles West High School has a population of 3,600. You do the math.
